1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a photography camera that provides direct and indirect flash capabilities, and more particularly to an automated compact camera including a built-in, indirect, flash unit that provides optimized indirect reflective illumination to the object being photographed.
2. Description of the Related Art
Photographers continually suffer with finding a solution to diffusing the detrimental effects caused by harsh direct flash. Intense direct flash is unfavorable in that the flash light source is a harsh point source of light. One skilled in the art of photography understands that “bounce flash,” (i.e., flash aimed away from the object, such as at a light-colored surrounding wall and/or ceiling which is allowed to bounce toward the object) is one solution that will soften the intense illuminating and shadowing effects of direct flash and cast a smoother continuous hue of neutral lighting on the object being photographed to produce a more pleasing photograph.
In a studio, a professional photographer can modify the lighting conditions and flash in just about every way so that it does not produce harsh light. The two most common methods for redirecting the light are to use a soft box and/or an umbrella. The soft box allows you to fire the flash directly, but through a soft-shelled box that bounces the light around over a larger surface before being directed through a translucent cover. The umbrella spreads the light from the flash over a larger surface area (the inside of the umbrella), but instead of being fired directly, the flash is reversed and fires into the umbrella so that the object being photographed is bathed in soft, indirect light. The disadvantage of these two methods is that the cumbersome external devices (the soft box and the umbrella) are required for enhanced lighting and must be set up and manipulated to obtain optimal lighting. Consequently, much preparation time is required and a user cannot effectively shoot on the go or in casual settings with soft boxes and umbrellas.
There is a long felt need in the photography industry to enhance the lighting by using external indirect flash units. Including an indirect flash unit substantially equal in size to existing direct flash units in compact cameras is not practical because the indirect flash would be vastly underpowered for its intended purpose. Conventional attempts to include the existing indirect flash technology that would be capable of replicating the effective lighting of an accessory flash (e.g., xenon strobe based) in the housing of an existing compact camera will result in increasing the dimensions of the camera by at least 2-4 times.
By way of background, a guide number (GN) is used to indicate how much light a flash will produce when it goes off. As the GN gets higher, the intensity of the light increases as well as the distance the light can travel. GNs are measured in feet (or meters). Many factors will affect the physical distance the flash can cover: from outdoors to indoors, the amount your flash can light up will vary. Most GNs assume that your digital camera is set to ISO 100.
The GN and capacitor size are roughly proportional. Various GNs are assigned for various elements in the camera, such as for example: the GN for current compact flash cameras and disposables is approximately 6-8; the GN for internal flashes in DSLRs is approximately 11-15; the GN for external hot shoe flashes is approximately 30-50; and the GN for an indirect flash in a compact camera or DSLR should be approximately 20+ which would require a capacitor about the size of a C-cell battery which is not compactly practical.
Various expensive and ingenious on-camera flash unit attachment alternatives have been proposed, such as a hard hat with a flash mounted thereon, an external flash bracket that mounts the flash higher to push shadows down lower, and/or attaching cumbersome indirect flash units (such as shown and described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,136,312 which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety) yet none have proposed integrating an adjustable bounce flash unit in a compact manner directly into a camera that can be easily manipulated by a lay consumer.